Would love to hear what your favorite places to stay in Bacharach, Oberwesel, Braubach or Boppard are - it will be the beginning of our 24 day road trip. We will be there Oct. 26-29 then onto Bastogne for 1 night for a Band of Brothers tour then dropping down to Mettlach for 3 nights and onward east.
Trying to decide which place to be home base for 3 nights. We plan on taking a KB cruise, a castle ( still deciding which one), wine tasting, biergarten, museums, markets, and eating all local foods.
Posted by
Paradise
6648 posts
Of those, the only good choice IMHO would be Boppard for the end of October. Boppard is a good choice anytime, but during this slow period you will appreciate the fact that Boppard is a normal town that isn't dependent only on tourists to keep the doors open... it's a shopping/dining target for locals in the general area as well.
Boppard also means your day trips to Oberwesel, St. Goar, Braubach, and other towns will be free of charge - hop on the train to take advantage of the free transport privileges you get with your VRM Guest Ticket (issued to all Boppard hotel/apartment/B&B guests.)
Boppard is also close to Koblenz - 15 minutes by direct train - for times when you might want some time in the "big city" or to do some specific sightseeing there. Koblenz is where you'd change trains to visit Braubach, the home of Marksburg Castle - a true medieval castle which is open year round for tours and makes for an excellent visit.
CRUISES: KD (not KB) ends their regularly-scheduled season on Oct. 22. However, Bingen-Rüdesheimer will keep running on their regular cruise schedule through Oct. 29. Scroll down and click on "Fahrplan 2023" at the following page to see this schedule.
https://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/linienfahrten/linie/loreleyfahrt
Suggest you do a Bingen > St. Goar cruise to see the best part; alternatively, if you plan to visit Rüdesheim, you could do so (by train from Boppard) one morning and cruise north from there on the BR boat at 1 pm.
Posted by
San Diego, California
4746 posts
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany-reviews/recommendations-for-rhine-valley-stay
Did the places mentioned here not interest you? We really liked Boppard.
Safe travels.
Posted by
Paradise
6648 posts
Saw Pat's note about your previous post... Since you are seasoned citizens, you may wish to call in a taxi to skip the uphill hike from the center of Braubach to Marksburg Castle. Their contact information includes an email address:
Posted by
Duluth 🛶
6342 posts
I stayed in Boppard for 3 nights in May of 2022 and loved it. It was a great base for everything and there was a lot to see and do. And as Russ mentioned, you get a free travel pass for public transportation in the area. I stayed at the Bellevue Rheinhotel, which was really lovely and was right at the KD cruise port on the water.
I loved my visit to Burg Eltz castle and it should still be open when you are there (I believe it closes for the season on Nov. 1). It was really beautiful and the surrounding scenery was breathtaking.
Posted by
OP
West Hills, CA, USA
32 posts
Thank you, Russ, you always give such well thought out and useful answers, much appreciated.
Pat, thank you for your response - I did like those answers from the other forum, but after checking out the areas I was finding more places that looked interesting. So thought I would throw out just in case a new place might be even better!
Mardee- it sounding like Boppard is the ticket...we were planning on Burg Eltz, for sure.
Love this forum for all the great information!
Posted by
Paradise
6648 posts
Burg Eltz visit:
It's 2 hours from Boppard on 2 trains + 1 bus to the Burg Eltz, Wierschem bus stop. (After that, you will board a shuttle bus to the castle (check with castle mgmt. to ensure it's still running on the day you visit) or an uphill walk of roughly 800 meters to the entrance. Returning as you came, it's the reverse - shuttle or walk to the bus stop + 2 hours from the bus stop on public transport to Boppard after your tour. So a visit will mean dedicating most of your daylight hours to this outing.
Alternatively, staying in Koblenz, if you book near the station, cuts the public transport to Eltz to roughly 2.5 hours instead of 4.
Marksburg visit: From Boppard, it's 40-55 minutes by train only each way; one change in Koblenz. If staying in Koblenz, you'd be about 10 minutes from Braubach by direct train. Then you'd walk up or taxi.
(The transport to both castles from Boppard will be covered by the Guest Ticket. Not so from Koblenz.)
Sooo... You might have things to think about... There are solid logistical reasons that you might wish to book in Koblenz instead of Boppard, especially if visiting both castles. However, the transport will need to be paid for (it's not all that much.)
Alsooo... If you're visiting only one castle, Marksburg will eat up less of your day than Eltz, no matter where you stay. And the other advantage of Marksburg is that you'd have some choices in Braubach for mealtime in town. When you visit Eltz... well, I don't know what's on offer there at all nowadays... maybe the rest of you do...?